Out now: Decision Theory with a Human Face, by Richard Bradley

When making decisions, people naturally face uncertainty about the potential consequences of their actions. This uncertainty is due, in part, to limits in their capacity to represent, evaluate or deliberate. Nonetheless, they aim to make the best decisions possible. In Decision Theory with a Human Face, Richard Bradley develops new theories of agency and rational decision-making, offering guidance on how “real” agents who are aware of their bounds should represent the uncertainty they face, how they should revise their opinions as a result of experience and how they should make decisions when lacking full awareness of, or precise opinions on, the relevant contingencies.

Richard Bradley is a Professor here in the Department. He specialises in decision theory, formal epistemology and semantics, with a particular interest in individual decision making under uncertainty. Prof Bradley co-ordinates our MSc in Economics and Philosophy. He also leads our Rationality and Choice course (PH456 / PH301), in which students are introduced to theories of rationality and rational decision making and consider the philosophical assumptions underlying the dominant decision, game and social choice models. Rationality and Choice is available to all MSc students and to 4th year students on our BSc in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.

Decision Theory with a Human Face is available now from Cambridge University Press, who describe it as a “clear and detailed presentation of formal and conceptual philosophical material” which “provides researchers in different fields – philosophy, economics, psychology – with a coherent conceptual framework within which to investigate key issues.”